Report from Miami

By now you've probably read the descriptions of the extreme police violence on the streets of miami. Below is a report of what I witnessed and how my group fared.

This is a really long acount. Much longer that I thought it was going to be beforehand, and I didn't even talk about the events Friday. Probably misspelled too, sorry. I hope it gives people some idea what it was like to be on the streets that day, however. Writing this has made me realize just how much happened there on the streets of Miami and I think it's really important that people know what went down.

Before any actions began there was a strong feeling of anxiety around the crowd in Miami. Reports had been coming in over the last few weeks of pre-emptive arrests of activists around Miami. People were being taken in off the streets for pretenses like jaywalking, blocking the sidewalks, or simply being a group of more than 7 protesters in one place. When we arrived at the convergence center, we heard more stories of these types of arrests and were told to be extremely careful when we were walking around Miami.

Despite the aura of fear, people's spirits were high. The convergence center was filled with activity - Food Not Bombs was distributing free food to all, the IMC was bustling with activity next door, medics were getting ready for the next day, etc. etc. etc. Later on that night, a spokes-counsil meeting was held and we heard of the plan for direct action that had been agreed on. We would march from Government Center to the fence around the ampitheater. Once there, one group of activists would hold a "green zone" assembly, where no direct action would take place in order to create the safest space possible for people to protest. Another group would hold a "buffer zone", which would be a festive action designed to hold space in order to support a third group who would attempt to take down the massive fence set up around the perimeter of the hotel. In addition to the actions in the morning, another demonstration would take place at 5pm, after the unions had marched and we would invite any of them who wished to join us. It was clear a lot of planning had been put into the plan, it seemed solid, and and we quickly consensed on the plan.

In addition to the usual medic, IMC, legal, FNBs teams (all of them were awesome during the week, by the way) was a new team for this protest - the media team. They were going to work with the corporate press to try to "embed" reporters in our movement and to get coverage in the mainstream papers from our point of view. To this cynical IMC reporter, it seemed like a futile idea, however it turned out to be quite important as the events went on.

Of course, things didn't go so smoothly come Thursday. The police blocked off the march before we arrived at our destination, at the location where we agreed to keep as a green zone. After long time standing around, my affinity group decided to walk around a little and check things out elsewhere. Pretty soon after, the police moved in and blocked the other sides of the march, penning people in. Looking from the outside of the line it seemed that the police were planning a mass arrest of the thousands of people now trapped by police lines. I looked at mini police tanks rolling down the streets and prepared for the worst.

Luckily the people inside were able hold their lines against the police and eventually the police line next to the ampitheater withdrew and allowed people into our planned demonstration site. Some people had been picked off and arrested, and others had left when they saw the police line closing in, however the group was largely intact.

I was at the wrong side of the police line at this point and wasn't able to witness the events, but others have told me the people advanced towards the fence, were able to get grappling hooks around it and it seemed to be giving. However there were not enought people to pull it down and when the police launched tear gas into the group they retreated.

On my side of the police line I saw the Association of Retired Americans (part of UNITE) approach. We greated them with chants of "I say UNION, you say POWER. UNION. POWER. UNION. POWER." Their planned route was blocked by riot cops at this point so they took a quick left to get to the site. A group of about 50 riot cops marched out and followed them on their flank, aparrently afraid of what mayham this group of 60-70 year olds could cause.

By the time I arrived at the demonstration site, things had settled down slightly - the only action going on was Free Carnival Area of the Americas. The police presense was still quite strong and it was quite tense, however the clashes had stopped and the police were not making any move to advance.

After a little time the AFL-CIO began to arrive on the scene. A see of blue flags from the Steelworker's union was greeted by Free Carnival Area of the Americas and chants of "We support the steelworkers." More and more unions came through, it must have taken hours before they all converged in the ampitheather. Global Justice protesters greated them as they approached. The AFL-CIO members chanted "NO WAY.." and we finished "FTAA".

Several protesters told the union members what happened that morning and aksed them to stay outside of the ampitheater to help prevent the cops from attacking us once they were all inside. Most continued in, but I saw several groups of people stay outside in solidarity with the other protesters.

The rally lasted for while, then the permitted march took off. My estimate was that 30-40 thousand people took part in it. The unions members began to get back on their busses and I joined a group who sat in the ampitheather to see the wrap-up rally being held there.

A little after 4pm, all hell broke lose.

Apparently the police wanted to pre-emtively prevent any direct action from being held at 5. At this point the bulk of the union folks were gone, although there was still a many union members there, including retirees from the ARA. The police decided it was time to move in and began advancing on the crowd. I was listening to speakers at the rally when I say people line up and look out. I hurried up to the top to see what was happening and say the police line moving towards the protesters guns pulled, and a good number of tear gas canisters on the ground. As I moved in to get some photos, the police opened fire on the protesters, shooting rubber bullets and what sounded to me like tasers into the crowd. The Black Bloc put up several barricades, but fairly quickly decided that trying to hold the park was futile. The crowd retreated back and regrouped.

Quite a few people decided to get out while they could at this point and, separated from my affinity group, I joined them. We were able to escape fairly easy and calmly, although riot police were menacing all around us. Most of the other people from our group were in the ampitheater, which was blocked by police lines, but not under attack. They were able to get out fairly easily.

The people who decided to stand their ground were in for a lot of punishment. The police closed in on them and began assulting them with tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray. Helicopters came down to spread the tear gas around in the crowd. It wasn't long before the crowd withdrew. Riot police blocked their sides while others chased them from behind - still shooting rubber bullets at them. People were running as fast as they can to get away from the police violence. Some were able to escape, some weren't. Many of the protesters were quite badly brutalized by the police. One of the members of our group who was shooting pictures near the police lines, was shot 4 times by rubber bullets.

At this point I was separated from my group and the meeting spot that we agreed upon was behind police lines. The day had been really complicated and getting back together was quite confusing. Luckily the activists around me were really helpfull, sharing cell phones, giving me directions, updates about what was happening on the streets and rides to where I needed to go. We shared our stories about what happened that day, talked about strategies for the movement, sang, and generally enjoyed each other's presense. The sense of community and mutual aid was incredible.

Eventually I met up with my group, we talked about what happened that day and then went to sleep to get ready for Friday...